Why the Vivo V60 Is Still a Smart Smartphone Choice in 2026

Upgrading your smartphone can feel overwhelming, especially when every new release claims to be a game-changer. But what if last year’s device still delivers exactly what you need? The Vivo V60, launched in September 2025, proves that you do not always need the latest model to enjoy premium features. Even in 2026, this smartphone remains a strong contender thanks to its performance, camera system, and practical AI tools.

Excellent value amid rising smartphone prices

Smartphone prices have steadily increased in 2026, largely due to global memory chip price hikes. These chips play a critical role in speed and storage, and higher production costs have pushed retail prices up for many new devices. Because the Vivo V60 was released before these price surges took full effect, it offers a more attractive cost-to-feature ratio than many newer models.

For Filipino consumers who want performance without overspending, the Vivo V60 stands out. You get reliable speed, ample storage, and premium features at a price that feels more reasonable in today’s market.

ZEISS-powered camera that still impresses

Photography remains one of the Vivo V60’s biggest strengths. Its 50MP ZEISS Super Telephoto Camera supports up to 100x zoom, allowing users to capture detailed shots even from a distance. Whether you are taking landscape photos or snapping moments at events, image clarity remains impressive.

Another highlight is its underwater photography capability. With IPx8 and IPx9 water resistance, the Vivo V60 lets you shoot photos and videos in the pool. For Filipinos who enjoy beach outings and summer getaways, this is a fun and practical feature. Backed by ZEISS optics, the camera system delivers quality images with minimal need for editing.

AI tools that support productivity and creativity

Artificial intelligence has become a core part of the smartphone experience, and the Vivo V60 integrates AI in ways that feel genuinely useful. For productivity, features like AI Smart Call Assistant can translate voice calls in real time, while AI Captions can transcribe meetings, translate languages, and summarize key points instantly.

For creative users, AI Four-Season Portrait adds seasonal effects to photos, and AI Erase 3.0 helps remove glare and unwanted objects. These built-in tools make it easier to create and work directly from your phone.

Even in 2026, the Vivo V60 delivers where it matters: performance, camera quality, and smart features at a fair price. Starting at Php 28,999, it remains a dependable and enjoyable smartphone choice available in Vivo concept stores, kiosks, and online.

Lenovo Unveils Purpose-Built AI Inferencing Servers at CES 2026 to Power Real-Time Enterprise AI

At Tech World @ CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Lenovo announced a new portfolio of purpose-built AI inferencing servers, solutions, and services designed to help enterprises unlock real-time AI decision-making at scale. The announcement marks a significant step forward as organizations move beyond training large language models (LLMs) toward deploying fully trained AI models that deliver immediate business value.

Lenovo’s latest AI inferencing portfolio is built to support workloads across cloud, data center, and edge environments. This flexible approach ensures that AI runs where it creates the most impact—whether that’s in centralized data centers, distributed cloud platforms, or latency-sensitive edge locations. By addressing the entire AI deployment lifecycle, Lenovo enables enterprises to operationalize AI faster and more efficiently.

At the core of the portfolio is the new Lenovo ThinkSystem SR675i, engineered for the largest and most complex AI workloads. Designed to support full-scale LLM inferencing, the SR675i targets high-demand industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services, where real-time insights and automation are critical. Complementing this is the Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650i, which delivers high-density GPU compute optimized for accelerated AI inferencing while remaining easy to deploy within existing data center environments.

For edge use cases, Lenovo introduced the ThinkEdge SE455i, enabling ultra-low-latency AI inferencing closer to where data is generated. Built for compact, rugged, and temperature-flexible deployments, the SE455i is ideal for retail, telecommunications, and industrial applications that require immediate AI-driven decisions.

To address energy efficiency challenges in high-performance AI environments, Lenovo integrates advanced air and liquid cooling technologies through Lenovo Neptune. This innovation helps reduce power consumption while maintaining performance at scale. Additionally, Lenovo TruScale provides flexible, usage-based consumption models, allowing enterprises to adopt AI infrastructure while maintaining budget control and operational agility.

These new inferencing servers form the foundation of the Lenovo Hybrid AI Factory, a modular and validated framework for building and operating enterprise-grade AI solutions. Lenovo further strengthened this offering by introducing pre-validated hybrid AI inferencing platforms with Nutanix, Red Hat, and Canonical, ensuring scalable, secure, and cost-effective deployments.

To accelerate adoption, Lenovo also launched Hybrid AI Factory Services, offering advisory, deployment, and managed services. Real-world impact was highlighted through immersive content creation at the Sphere in Las Vegas, showcasing how Lenovo’s AI infrastructure powers next-generation experiences.

With this comprehensive AI inferencing portfolio, Lenovo positions itself at the forefront of real-time enterprise AI innovation.

How PLDT and Smart Are Using Everyday Technology to Support Persons with Disabilities

Technology like AI or artificial intelligence delivers its greatest impact when it uplifts not just the many, but especially the most disadvantaged, giving persons with disabilities greater access, dignity, and opportunity. This drives PLDT and Smart to use AI and widely available mobile applications to support persons with disabilities in schools or in the community.

Under the IDEATe (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Advocacy through Technology) program, the PLDT Group works with ATRIEV (Adaptive Technology for Rehabilitation, Integration and Empowerment of the Visually Impaired) to offer AI for Accessibility, Android Accessibility Training, and Digital Business Basics Training courses. Last year, PLDT and Smart trained a total of 300 people with disabilities on various digital tools to enable their participation in the digital economy.

“Technology can help level the playing field for people who face barriers to education and employment,” said Stephanie V. Orlino, AVP and Head of Stakeholder Engagement at PLDT and Smart. “By focusing on practical digital skills, we’re helping persons with disabilities engage more confidently in a digitally connected society.”

AI: All Included

The AI for Accessibility course uses AI-powered applications to make learning more inclusive and accessible for children with disabilities. Initially rolled out for Special Needs Education (SNED) teachers, with support from the Department of Education schools divisions of Makati, Taguig, and Pateros, the course provides hands-on training on generative AI tools, assistive mobile applications for the visually impaired, and speech-to-text and text-to-speech technologies. PLDT and Smart also offered the training to advocates from like-minded organizations.

Open for Business, Open for All

Beyond the classroom, PLDT and Smart also support livelihood opportunities for persons with disabilities and their families. Through the Digital Business Basics Training, participants learn how to start and manage small businesses, use design tools to craft posters and other marketing collaterals, and apply basic principles of costing, pricing, and online selling. The PLDT Group later on organized workshops for graduates that helped them form a vendors association, enabling them to collaborate and expand their market reach. It also invited beneficiaries to PLDT and Smart’s bazaars at the Group’s headquarters to further boost their income.

PLDT and Smart also offered skills training on social media marketing, bookkeeping, and general virtual assistance to 30 women with disabilities and carers of persons with disabilities to allow them to offer office support services remotely.

Learning the Basics

PLDT and Smart also champion the use of everyday technology for inclusion. With smartphones already widely used in the Philippines, the PLDT Group worked with ATRIEV to help persons with visual impairment turn their mobile phones into assistive devices through the Android Accessibility Training. The program covers basic operations and introduction to screen readers, angle gestures and other essential applications. In 2025, with support from NORFIL Foundation and the DepEd Schools Division Office of Manila, the course was expanded to accommodate students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Intellectual Disability (ID), and other neurodevelopmental conditions by incorporating interactive reading applications and gamified math programs to build academic and functional digital skills. The program also introduced participants to communication tools designed for users with sensory or learning disabilities through built-in real-time feedback and visual cues.

Creating safe spaces

PLDT and Smart go beyond rhetoric by translating their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion into concrete action. In the previous year, more than a thousand employees completed disability sensitivity workshops, including immersive activities that simulate the everyday challenges faced by persons with disabilities—strengthening awareness and fostering a more inclusive workplace culture. As DEI champions, they also shared the initiative with partner universities and organizations.

Through IDEATe, the PLDT Group reaffirms its mission to uplift the lives of persons in challenging circumstances and to support the country’s pursuit of UNSDG 8 on Decent Work and Economic Growth, and UNSDG 10 on Reduced Inequalities.

PLDT and Smart Deploy New Technologies, Strengthen Partnerships to Boost Connectivity in GIDAs

Connecting an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands requires multiple solutions to ensure that the benefits of faster, more reliable, and more affordable internet can reach more Filipinos, enabling hybrid work set-ups, online learning, and the delivery of e-government and e-healthcare services in remote and far-flung areas.

To achieve this, leading integrated telco network PLDT Inc (PLDT) and its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications, Inc (Smart) continued to invest in network infrastructure and innovative technologies, as well as tightened their collaboration with government and industry stakeholders to overcome the challenges of connecting remote and geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs).

"Our mission is simple: to deliver better internet that costs less and reaches more Filipinos, especially those in far-flung areas. By working hand-in-hand with our partners in government, we believe we can roll out a stronger, more resilient network faster and more efficiently," said Menardo G. Jimenez, PLDT Chief Operating Officer and Network Head and PLDT representative to the Presidential Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC).

Last year, PLDT and Smart explored innovative connectivity solutions to overcome deployment challenges in hard-to-reach locations. PLDT tested Radisys point-to-multipoint broadband wireless access technology, which delivers fiber-like speeds over-the-air through a single base node connecting to remote radio nodes in customer premises. The company also piloted Google’s Taara laser communication technology, delivering fiber-like speeds using beams of light instead of undersea or underground cables, to sites like Talim Island in Rizal, Dipaluda in Isabela and Bagong Pag-asa in Quezon City. Smart has also partnered with Lynk Global to enable direct-to-device satellite-powered mobile connectivity, allowing users to send SMS and use apps like WhatsApp even when cell services are unavailable.

Collaboration is key

Aside from leveraging these technologies, PLDT and Smart also worked closely with government agencies, local government units, and PSAC to streamline permitting processes, remove bottlenecks in network builds, and fast-track network rollouts, ensuring that connectivity reaches communities that need it most.

Boosting their public and private collaborations to ultimately benefit millions of Filipinos who depend on strong, stable connections for work, learning, and safety, PLDT and Smart have further solidified their partnership with the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), National Electrification Administration (NEA), tower companies, and other industry stakeholders, and continued to lead discussions highlighting Executive Order No. 32 and other regulatory policies aimed at accelerating network deployment and improving digital access nationwide.

With PSAC and other major fixed-line telcos, PLDT is also boosting connectivity for state universities and colleges in support of the government's efforts to enhance the delivery of education across the country and is in coordination with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). Under "Konektadong CHED", PLDT envisions to expand connectivity to 220 SUCs by the first quarter this year, with the goal of reaching all 555 SUCs nationwide, benefiting between 5,000 to 10,000 learners and teachers per institution.

Smart is also supporting the government's Bayanihan SIM initiative, which aims to bring mobile data connectivity to GIDAs. Under this DICT-led program, Smart is providing free TNT SIM cards pre-loaded with 25GB of data per month for 12 months, fully subsidized by the government, beneficiaries identified by the Department of Education. The initial waves of distribution were successfully held in June last year in Masinloc, Zambales province at Bani National High School – Coto Annex, Coto Elementary School, and Mandaloy Elementary School, and in December at Unidos Elementary School in Nabas, Aklan.

PLDT’s investments in innovating to enhance its network are aligned with the Group's broader thrust to deliver leveled-up services to customers nationwide. It also supports PLDT and Smart's commitment to national development through strategic partnerships that expand digital access and enhance the delivery of essential services, such as education. This also contributes to the PLDT Group’s endeavors to help the country achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) including SDG 4 - Quality Education, SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, and SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities.

SHDA Inducts 2026 Officers, Sets Forward-Looking Agenda to Support National Housing Goals

Manila, Philippines — The Subdivision and Housing Developers Association (SHDA) officially inducted its 2026 new set of officers, marking the start of a year focused on supporting member developers and advancing the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development’s (DHSUD) beneficiary-centric housing program to help address the country’s housing backlog.

The new leadership team, led by Chairman Engr. Francis Richmond Z. Villegas and National President Kerwin V. Padua take office as the housing sector moves into the implementation phase of key policy reforms introduced in late 2025 under the Expanded Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH) program, which now includes horizontal developments.

Recently, DSHUD, together with the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev), released the adjustment of the socialized housing price ceiling under Joint Memorandum Circular 2025-001, along with the corresponding Implementing Rules and Regulations. The new ceilings are set at a maximum of P950,000 for horizontal or subdivision-type projects and P1,800,000 for vertical or condominium units with a minimum floor area of 27 square meters.

The oath-taking ceremony was led by DHSUD Secretary Jose Ramon P. Aliling, with senior DHSUD officials in attendance. The event also featured briefings on national housing priorities for 2026, including expanded housing options, faster project approvals, and continued engagement with private developers.

SHDA is committed to guiding its members in navigating these new guidelines, aiming to provide support on compliance, project planning, and efficient delivery, said SHDA Chairman Engr. Villegas. “With the implementation of revised policies, private-sector developers are expected to deliver around 250,000 housing units this year alone. Through briefings and knowledge-sharing, we aim to strengthen members’ capacity to plan and implement projects that align with government policies and meet the needs of Filipino families.”

SHDA’s 2026 agenda also focuses on advancing policy coordination and supporting the delivery of quality and affordable housing aligned with government targets under 4PH. Given this, SHDA continues to strengthen private-sector participation to help address financing, project viability, and implementation issues affecting housing projects nationwide.
In line with these efforts, SHDA will host its annual Golf Cup on March 26, 2026, at the Wack-Wack Golf and Country Club in Mandaluyong City. Now in its 4th edition, the event will bring together member developers, affiliate members, and other allied stakeholders from the government and private sectors for a fun and engaging opportunity of networking and collaboration in the spirit of golf. Additionally, a study tour for SHDA members in select Asian countries is underway. Countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia have been identified as potential venues to benchmark best practices, explore innovative housing and urban development solutions, and identify strategies to enhance local shelter construction and delivery in their respective housing projects.

“Through these programs, we are helping members translate government policies into tangible housing outputs,” said SHDA National President Padua. “By fostering innovation, improving project planning, and encouraging knowledge exchange, we aim to help our members navigate the evolving housing landscape.”

Joining Villegas and Padua on SHDA’s Board of Governors for 2026, who also serve as the association’s officers, are Atty. Marianne Reyna L. Cruz as 1st Vice President, Mr. Arnold Leigh Ryan Choa as 2nd Vice President, Atty. Mena R. Ojeda Jr. as Corporate Secretary, Ms. Clarissa De Joya as Assistant Corporate Secretary, Mr. Tommy T. Tantoco as National Treasurer, Ms. Jasmin Paz Trinidad as Auditor, and Ms. Regina Hahn Siy as Chief Marketing Officer.

Completing the Board of Governors are Mr. Edward Bernas, Arch. Leonardo B. Dayao Jr., Mr. Anthony Noel, Mr. Joel C. Punzalan, Ms. Renelyn Tan-Castillejos, and Mr. Cesar Lee Hiong L. Wee Jr.

SHDA’s Regional Chapter Heads for 2026 are Mr. Dennis R. Leveriza Jr. for South Luzon, Mr. John Paul T. Dy for Central Luzon, Mr. Harold Vince Y. See for Central Visayas, and MGen. Rufo A. De Veyra for Eastern Visayas, Mr. Steven Brian L. Jison for Negros, Mr. Eon C. Tiu for Panay, Engr. Kenneth Y. Yap for Southern Mindanao, and Mr. Voltaire Antonio M. Flores for Northern Mindanao.

Continuing as Board Advisers are Ms. Armenia C. Ballesteros, Mr. Ricky M. Celis, Mr. Bansan C. Choa, Mr. Guillermo C. Choa, Mr. Raphael B. Felix, Ms. Arlene C. Keh, Mr. Jeffrey T. Ng, Mr. Mariano D. Martinez, Ms. May P. Rodriguez, Mr. George T. Siy, and Ms. Rosie S. Tsai.

As the country’s leading organization of housing developers engaged in horizontal and vertical housing production, SHDA continues to work with its members alongside government agencies and industry partners to deliver inclusive, sustainable, and resilient communities nationwide. Developers and housing stakeholders are welcome to join SHDA’s membership program to support policy coordination and industry collaboration. More information is available at https://shda.ph/become-a-member/ or via the SHDA Secretariat at shda.secretariat@gmail.com.